Jay Loud On His Journey From Struggles To Success

Jay Loud breaks down the story behind his very first song to his Top 5 artists.

Jay Loud arrives in Los Angeles with a 1K tattoo on his neck, standing for his realness and authenticity.

Jay Loud comes from Indiana but he relocated to Seattle.

The singer and rapper has been consistently dropping bangers for his growing fanbase, with the ability to switch up his style and sound at any given moment.

Most recently, the EMPIRE signee unleashed the visual for “Ice Cream Man,” a bop for all the females all across the world.

AllHipHop: For those who don’t know, who is Jay Loud?

Jay Loud: Jay Loud is a music artist who came from a long struggle. I’ve been through a lot of trials and tribulations. I’m not really someone who’s a music artist, I’m just someone who’s expressing my knowledge, my pain, and how I feel. I’m spreading it through music, spreading it through tunes.

AllHipHop: How would you describe your sound?

Jay Loud: You can’t describe it. You can’t really put a name on it, it’s just different styles. I can adapt to all types of different styles. It’s universal.

AllHipHop: Talk about being from Indiana & relocating to Seattle.

Jay Loud: I had a big transition because of the simple fact that I was going through a lot of things back home. It was a situation where I had no choice, it was an opportunity offered to me. I turned it down at first, then my family members spoke to me and said it’s a “dumb idea with the stuff you’re going through right now.” I’m like “why not? It’s nothing here for me.” So I took it. Basically was going through a hard, rough situation, got offered an opportunity and went with it.

AllHipHop: At what point did you realize this music thing was for real?

Jay Loud: Once I got down here and I got offered an opportunity to go to the studio. I was like “bet!” Once I got to the studio and did the song the way I did, the way I heard it come out, I’m like “oh yeah.” When he said “I’m gonna push behind this song, we gon’ release it,” I’m like “oh, it’s for real now.” Right then and there, my manager Taj was the one who said: “Yeah, we gon’ start off with you right now.” The song was “Lick,” my first official song I let out on December 31st of last year.

AllHipHop: Super recent. What were you doing before that?

Jay Loud: I was singing and rapping, just posting snippets. Amateur stuff basically. I was with a small group, we were going to travel to promote our music. But you know, some things just don’t work out.

AllHipHop: What does it mean to be part of the EMPIRE family?

Jay Loud: Honestly, it means a lot because I was not expecting this at all. It was so unexpected, never knew that anybody at any type of label would really be interested in me. Because I did music before and it didn’t really work out, so I’m like “eh.” I didn’t really have enough confidence. Then when I seen it was labels interested, I had A&Rs hitting me up in the DM. I’m like “nah they fake.” I go to their page, I’m like “oh this is real!”

AllHipHop: Damn, and you just started too!

Jay Loud: That’s why I was so skeptical about it, but it’s really surreal.

AllHipHop: Best memory from the “Ice Cream Man” video shoot?

Jay Loud: I gotta say the pool scene. [chuckles] Just a lot of things going on at the pool, that’s my favorite scene besides the whole ice cream truck and the acting. It was fun being able to play the part of Big Worm, just be a part of the whole scene of that movie. To actually play that out on camera and it has nothing to do with the actual movie [Friday]. We made it look real too, got the little actual perm and all that. We made it do what it do.

AllHipHop: Who’s in your Top 5?

Jay Loud: Roddy Ricch, off the bat. I had got introduced to Nip once I had got down here. I started really feeling Nip, I was really rocking with his music. I was really rocking with it for some reason. I gotta go with Bryson Tiller because I be singing his stuff most of the time. I’d say Tay-K. One more? I gotta make this count. I’d go with DaBaby. DaBaby got sauce, I like his flow.